Religion and Civil Society

Secularization Theory and the Concept of Civil Society

In sociological studies of religion, the concept of civil society suggests an appealing correction to the traditional secularization paradigm. In its classical form, secularization theory predicted that as religion became institutionally differentiated from other sectors of social activity (e.g., politics, education, economics) and as these other institutional sectors became increasingly rationalized, religion would become sequestered in the private realm, largely irrelevant to much of social life. The highly visible role of religion in contemporary public affairs, even in societies that are arguably among the most secularized such as the United States, has led many social scientists to reject the privatization thesis, if not secularization theory altogether, and to seek a new paradigm. The concept of civil society suggests that secularization may occur without necessarily leading to the privatization of religion, because there exists an intermediary realm—a “public sphere” or civil society—in which religion can be public even as the political and economic systems become rationalized. Religion thus can remain or become a vital public force even in the most secularized social systems.

Furthermore, the prominent role of religion in the civil societies of modern nations suggests a correction to Enlightenment (eighteenth-century European philosophical outlook that emphasized reason) biases against religion, which tended to see religion as inhibiting the process of political and economic modernization. In those systems that are already markedly rationalized, religion is increasingly recognized as providing a necessary counterforce to the tendency of modern states and markets to invade the traditional life-world; of states and markets to operate according to rational, functionalist norms without regard for the human consequences; and of modern political and economic systems to erode the bonds of community that tie individuals to a moral order.

Religion as a Democratic Force

Contrary to the once-widespread assumption that religion is an inherently conservative force, religion also appears to have played a significant role in democratization movements in some South and East Asian and South American countries, such as Indonesia, Turkey, and Chile, first by negotiating autonomy from the state for itself and then by promoting from within that autonomous realm a more expansive sphere of free public discourse and association.

Clearly, the role of religion in civil society varies greatly from one society to the next; it has a prominent place in American civil society but not in Europe, and it tends to promote democracy in some instances and to resist it in others. Thus the study of religion in civil society demands a comparative perspective. No formal, systematic theory of religion in civil society has yet been attempted, although the American sociologist Jose Casanova is making strides in this direction. Nonetheless, some of the relevant variables are easily identified.

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